The Relationship of Self-Rated Function and Self-Rated Health to Concurrent Functional Ability, Functional Decline, and Mortality: Findings from the Nun Study
Open Access
- 1 September 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Vol. 51B (5) , S234-S241
- https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/51b.5.s234
Abstract
We investigated the relationship of self-rated function (i.e., the ability to take care of oneself) and self-rated health to concurrent functional ability, functional decline, and mortality in participants in the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease. A total of 629 of the 678 study participants self-rated their function and health and completed an initial functional assessment in 1991–93. Survivors completed a second assessment in 1993–94. Overall, self-rated function had a stronger relationship to functional ability at the first assessment and to functional decline between the first and second assessments than did self-rated health. Self-rated function also had a stronger relationship to mortality than did self-rated health. Self-rated function may be a better marker of global function than is self-rated health and may be a useful addition to clinical assessment and scientific investigation of the relationships among function, health, and disease.Keywords
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